Aso Rock summons Tinubu over insistence on Ambode’s removal

National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been summoned to Abuja over his insistence that Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwumi Ambode, must not go for a second term in office.

Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos and the political godfather of the state, came out openly on Sunday to declare that he is opposed to Ambode’s re-election and is supporting his sole challenger, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, ahead of the party’s much-postponed governorship primaries in the state.

Tinubu said his position was based on Ambode’s alleged deviation from the Lagos masterplan – a claim which the Governor’s camp has dismissed, pointing out that Ambode is widely acknowledged as having provided purposeful leadership and fast-tracked the infrastructural development of Lagos “in a way that any well-meaning Lagosian should be proud of”.

Sanwo-Olu is being sponsored by the Tinubu Camp, which has also made sustained but failed attempts to get Ambode to back out of the race.

“President Muhammadu Buhari is worried by the stalemate in Lagos APC and has summoned Tinubu to Abuja over the issue,” a highly placed source at Abuja told News Express on Monday afternoon.

The source said that the President is worried about the possibility of APC losing Lagos as a result of the crisis and is hopeful of resolving the issue.

“Mr. President believes that Governor Ambode, who earlier visited him in the Presidential Villa to state his side of the story, has been humiliated enough and should be allowed to get the party ticket for the 2019 polls,” the source said.

Tinubu’s Spokesman, Tunde Rahman, was yet to respond to enquiries by News Express as at the time of this report.